Cutting machine



Ap il 6, 1929, H. A. BALLARD CUTTING MACHINE Filed Feb. 1926 Patented Apr. 15, 1329.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRIE A. BALLARD, 0F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE TURNER TAN- NING MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PORTLAND, MAINE, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

CUTTING MACHINE.

Application filed February 8, 1926; Serial No, 86,798.

This invention relates to cuttin machines and is illustrated as embodied in a splitting machine having means for flattening a tire and guiding it toward the cutting mechanism.

It attempts to utilize the rubber and other material contained in vast quantities. of worn-out automobile tires, it is common practice to slice off from the worn tire the remaining portion of the tubber tread. Since this tread portion contains no fabric, it is treated separately to reclaim the rubber. In order to separate the rubber from the rubberized fabric of the tire it is desirable to split the remainder of the tire, after removing the tread, into layers so to expose the fal ric portion of the layers to treatment designed to destroy the fabric or otherwise separate it from the rubber. In the opera tions of removing the tread portion from a tire and in splitting the remainder of the tire into layers it has been found advantageous to employ a splitting machine of the well-known band knife type. Preliminarily to the splitting operations a tire is severed by a transverse cut through the whole body of the tire so that the severedends may be separated and the tire thus introduced to the splitting machine by forcing one of the ends between the gage roll and the ring roll of the machine. Duelargely to the presence of the tread, the tire is very resistant to all efforts to spread it out fiat, so much so that heretofore the combined efforts of two or three men have been required to force even a moderate-sized tire into feeding engagement with the feed rolls of a splitting machine. It will be readily understood that the work involved in splitting operations on the'tires, and particularly in removing the tread portion. thereof, has been ditlicult. laborious in the extreme, and not unattended with danger to the workmen.

Accordingly, an object of thisinvention to provide suchimprovements in splitting machines as will facilitate introdurtion of work of the character referred to, and make it possible for a single operator to accomplish without danger or difiiculty even greater production than that her tofore achieved only by the united efforts of two or three workmen.

To this end and in accordance with an important feature of'the invention there is proided means for flattening a rubber tire or similar article so that it is readily engaged by the feedingmeans of the machine and fed to the operating tool. Preferably and as shown, the flattening means comprises a member having diverging surfaces adapted to spread the tire as the latter is moved along the said surfaces. For co-operation with the spreading member there is provided, as illustrated, a member which serves to guide the entering end of the tire and to hold the tire against the spreading member and to facilitate movement thereof by lessening friction between the tire and the tire flattening means. In the illustrated construction, this second member is shown as a rotatable cylindrical member that may be power driven, in which case it operates further as an auxiliary tire feedin means.

In order that work of various thicknesses may be economically and efliciently operated upon to cut off splits or layers of various thicknesses, a gage has commonly been provided in split-ting machines by adjustment of which the thickness of the splits or'cut-ofi layers may be determined. An important feature of this invention resides in the provision of connecting means between the gage and work flattening means whereby adjust ment of the former is accompanied by adjustment of the latter to accommodate tires or other work pieces of different sizes. In the illustrated machine, the gage support is adjustable to secure adjustment of the gage-and advantage is taken of this fact to mount the tire spreading element of the tire flattening means upon the support to move therewith. In this way the tire flattening means maintains a constant relation to the gage whatever the adjustment of the latter.

To assist the operator in supporting a tire preliminarily to its movement toward work operating position and in guiding the tire to the spreading member there is provided a work supporting and guiding member in the form of a curved horn adapted to enter the cavity of the tubular tire and either formed as an attachment to the spreading member or made integrally therewith.

While the invention is illustrated as em bodied in a splitting machine of a standard belt knife type, it will be understood that the invention and various important features thereof may be applied to cutting machines of other types and to machines de- Ill) , with the lin s of the rin -roll.

' In the drawings signed to perform other operations on tires and on similar tubular pieces of work.

Other features of in'iportance and novel combinations of parts will be described in the detailed specification and pointed out in the appended claims.

. float-ion and F 5 is a detail view' of the recess in the ring plate. a

In the illustrated splitting machine which is of the band knife type there is provided an endless band knife 10 arranged to supported and driven by two wheels 12, the upper straight run of the knife 10 being supported by jaw plates 14; and 16 respectively arranged to maintain the knife in a horizontal plane and to support it against the thrust of the work while at the same time permitting it to move while the work is being fed against its cutting edge. As shown, the work ceding means comprises a ring-roll 18 of well-known construction which maybe power driven if desired, although it'is ordinarily driven by frictional contact with a rubber covered bed roll such as that shown at-QO. it will be understood that the individual rings of the ring-roll 18 may be depressed by the thicker portions of the work and that normally the rings are supported at a predetermined upper limit where they are guided and retained in place by means of two ring-plates 22 and 2a which present concaved edge surfaces to contact As shown, the ring-plate 2% is part of a work supporting table 26. For co-operation with the ringroll 18' in. feeding the work there is provided a roll 28 mounted in bearings provided by beam 30,"ineans (not shown) being provided for positively driving the roll 28, Thisteed roll 28 is also a gage roll since by reason of its spacing with respect I to the plane of the cutting edge of the knite vl0 the thickness oi: the top split may be accurately determined. It, for instance, the gage roll 28 be elevated through an upward adjustment oft-he beam 30 through proper manipulation of hand wheels 32 the thickness of the upper split will be proportionately increased. For backing the gage roll 28 to prevent bending of the latter at points intermediate between its ends there are provided a number of rotary backing rolls, one of which is shown at 34 in Fig. 2. To prevent lateral movement of the gage roll 28 the beam 30 is provided, as shown, with a pair of guide plates 36 adjustable to present their lower edges in contact with the roll 28 as guides therefor. Upon inspection of the drawings and particularly o'r-Fig. 2 it will be readily understood that work moved over the table 26 in a direction toward the knife 10 is engaged by the feeding means comprising the ring-roll l8 and the gage roll and accurately ted to the knife 10, one split passing upwardly over the jaw plate while the other split, in this case the rutber tread of the tire 90, passes downwardly below the jaw plate 1%- and over the ring-plate 22. For a more complete disclosure of the driving elements and other parts of a well-known commercial splitting machine such as that illustrated in the drawings, reference may be had to Patent 626,858, granted June 13, 1899, upon application of Amory A. Chilson.

As has been stated in the foregoing discussion very considerable ditliculty has heretofore been experienced in the o; eration of introducing automobile tires into tne grip of the feeding means in splitting machines.

For the purpose of facilitating the feeding of a tire to the cutting means and also of obviating the very serious likelihood of injury to the operator, there is provided in the illustrated construction 'means for flattening the tire so that it will readily engage between the ring-roll l8 and the gage roll 28 operating as teed rolls. As shown, this flattening means comprises a spreader men" or 40 secured by a bracket 41 to the beam 30 and constructed to present a rounded projecting portion 42 over which the tire may be readily forced and provided with diverging surfaces 44; which operate to spread out the side portions of the tubular tire as the latter is moved downwardly and in a direction to engage with the feeding rolls 18 and 28. At its lower or inn end the spreader member 40 presents broad fiat surface, the extreme edge of which is in close juxtaposition to the ringroll 28 (Fig. 2). For guiding the tire so that port-ions of the latter will engage with the flared portions of the spreader member 40 and for holding the tire against the spreader member there is provioed a menr ber which is a rotatable cylindrical member designed to serve 'as an antifriction member facilitating the introduction of the work and its movementthrough the flattening means. This cylindrical member 50 is supported rotatably upon a shaft 52 carried by bearings provided by brackets 54 secured adjustably to the work supporting table 26. Adjustment of the brackets EA is secured by bolts 55 working in slots (not shown) in thebrackets and is for the purpose of positioning the cylindrical member 50 in the desired relation to adjacent surface of the spreader member 40, it being clear that more space between thespreader member and the member 50 must be provided for the larger and heavier tires than for those of smaller dimensions. While, as stated, adjustment of the cylind 'ical member 50 may be necessary in order to secure proper operation of the machine with tires dili'ering marl;- cdly in size, there is another adjustment oi the tire flattening means which is secured by reason of the fact that the spreader member 40 is mounted upon the beam which :arries the gage roll 28. Hence, when the beam 30 is adjusted to move the upper teed roll 28, which is the gage roll, in directions toward or away from the plane of the cut ter 10, the spreader member d0 is also moved and to the same extent. Thus, the spreader member always keeps a aredetermined relation with respect to the gage roll 28. It the latter be adjusted up wardly to insure the proper separation of a rubber tread from a thicker heavier tire, the spreader member is also adjitisted and this may be all of the adjustmentrequired in operating upon the heavier tire. when thinner or lighter tires are to operated upon, adjustment of the gage roll 28 downwardly to insure removal of the rubber tread portion only or" the tire w'll be accompanied by a corresponding adjustment of the spreader member l0. in many instances'this adjustment of the spreader will constitute the only adjustment of the tire flattening means vvhm adapting the machine by adj ustinent to operate upon various sizes of tires. In connection with the gaging operation, it should be noted that the fabric layers of the tire pass above the cotter 10 and that it is these layers which are engaged by the'gage 28, since they are apt to be substantially uniil or 1 in thickness in all tires of a given make and Since the rubber tread is subjected geatest wear it is apt to be very irregular l"! hiclzness and not able for lg. Hence it is cut oil and directed.

wnwart ly below the cutter l0.

notner teat re of importance is that which relates to the provision in the ringplate 2% and in the table of a recessed portion 60 located below and in batch of the cyldrical mambo and extending as a slaming surface up tr the ring-roll 18, The purpose of this recessed portion in the table 26 is to accommodate the end portion of the tire as the latter is introduced between the spre der member 4:0 and he cylindrical member 50 and to guide this forward end in conjunction with the lower spreading surface of the spreader member 40 so that the progressively flattened end of the tire will be raided properly into contact with the feed rolls l8 and 28. Furthermore, this rellloreover, this cutti A 'ain I J l v e v. flattening means the spreader member 4-0. As

tie

Ccsscd portion accommodates the bi ekled portion of the tire above the end portion as the tire is forced downwardly in engagement rogressively diverging surfaces d r men'iber 4-0. Upon reference to Fig. 5 01 the drawings it will be observed that the recess (30 has its deeper portion in the table 26 adjacent to the roll 50 where the entering end of the tire will contact with the plate 26 and that the lioor oi the recess slants upwardly toward the rear edge of the ringplate 24, thus furnishing a guiding surface which serves to direct the forward end or the tire into contact with the ring-roll l urthermore, the recess along the edge oi the ring-plate where the latter contacts with the ring-roll 18 is curved slightly so as to accommodate the end of the tire while the latter is stillslightly curved thus requiring of the operator less eitorc than would be the case it the recess were perfectly flat.

a away of the edge of the ring plate makes it certain that the ring rolls will alwa s be in position to engage the tire in spite of the tact that they are likely to be considerably depressed by heavy work into the yielding surface of the bed roll 20. It will be understooc that ordlnaril the rins nlate will be )rovi-ded with a plurality of recesses similar to the recess (50 and spaced from each other lengthwise of the ring-plate so that more than one flattening means may be attached to the beam 30 and to the ta ie 26 and have arecess 60 for co-op tion therewith, thus providing tire splitting stations for two or more operators along the length he same splfting machine. Another rea for providing aplurality of recesses iii!) the recess 60 is that it is desirable to shift the tire a new location after a time, s nce the ring-roll 18 after long continued iise becomes less eli'ective, principally because of the wearing Away of the rubber covered bed roll 20 which serves to sunport the ring-roll and d, ire the latter;

hleans is also provided in the illus maclnne for supporting the tire in tially vertical plane prior to and whi being threaded upon the uppeuend shown, this support-1g and guiding means oil? the tire comprises a curved horn 62 having its lower end attached to the upper end of the spreat er mem a curved or folded portion (5+l adapted to enter the concaved recess of the tubular tire and to oiie no obstruction to sliding move ment of the tire relatively to the born 62. Since the horn is of light construction, supporting means is provided therefor comprising strut 66 secured to the horn and to the bracket of the spreader me ber 40. liliaition shor 1 in i in the mot AU,

orawmgs the spreader member is l her ll) and its free end formed wi h disclosed as made up of two parts 70, each of which is secured by means of a bracket 72 to the beam 30, the said brackets being secured by means of bolts and set screws indicated at Tet arranged so as to provide for adjustment of the spreader parts toward and from each other, the purpose being to provide a spreader member of a size to accommodate the smallest tire which it is desired to operate upon and also the largest sizes of tires. In operating upon small tires it is clear that the upwardly projecting portion 42 of the spreader member 40, and of spreader member 70-70, should be small enough to enter readily within the recess of the tubular tire and that the diverging surfaces l4: are most effective when the angle of divergence is a moderate one. Hence, while it would be possible to provide a spreader member 40 with a projecting entering portion 41-2 suited to all sizes of tires, it may be preferable to provide for certain working conditions the divided spreader member ad justable to accommodate tires of different sizes.

In the embodiment shown in this same Figure 4, means is pro *ided for rotating the cylindrical member 50 so that in addition to serving as a guiding means and as a flattening means in co-operation with the spreader 40 it serves also as an auxiliary feeding means by which the tire is fed in a direction toward the feed rolls 18 and 28 adjacent to the cutter l0. lVhile any desired arrangements may be provided for driving the shaft 52 and the cylindrical member 50, which in this case is secured to shaft 52, that shown comprises a sprocket wheel 78 secured on the end of the shaft 52 and sprocket chain 80 passing around a second sprocket wheel 82 fixedly attached to a stub shaft Sel mounted in a fixed portion of the frame of the machine and driven in turn by sprocket wheels and sprocket chain 86 arranged to be driven from a counter shaft 88 of the machine.

In operating with the machine illustrated in the drawings, a tire 90 is first positioned by theaid of the horn 62, the horn being slender enough so that it may be easily introduced through the slot into the recess within the tubular tire. It will be readily understood that the horn 62 is of very considerable aid to the operator in supporting and positioning a heavy tire in a substantially vertical plane as a preliminary to movement of this tire in a direction to force asevered end thereof upon the rounded projecting portion 42 of the spreader member 40. As the tire is forced downwardly in contact with the spreader member it shortly contacts also with the cylindrical member 50 which serves to guide the end of the tire and to hold it against the spreader member. In case the cylindrical member 50 is power driven, as shown in Fig. 4%, this member aids also in feeding the tire in the direction to cause the end of the tire to engage with the feed rolls l8 and 28. hen the flattened end of the tire has been engaged by the feed rolls 18 and 28 the tire is cuickl fed through the machine and the rubber tread is cut oill. After cutting off the treads of a stack of tires, the gage 28 may be set and a fabric layer severed from the tires, according to the judgment of the operator. It is common practice to refer to the rubber tread and to the rubberized fabric layer cut on from the body of the tire as a split. In any case the thickness of the split may be determined by adjustment of the gage 28.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a machine for cutting a slice from a surface of a tubular piece of work, cutting means, and means comprising a member having diverging surfaces for opening a tubular piece of work and spreading it out in a substantially flat condition preliminarily to a cutting operation.

2. Ina machine for cutting a slice from a surface of a tubular piece of work, a cutting tool, and n eans having diverging surfaces for opening and spreading a tire out flat prior to an operation by the tool.

In a machine for cutting a slice from a surface of a tubular piece of work, cutting means movable transversely of a tire to cut off the tread portion, a device having diverging surfaces to open a tubular tire and spread it out ina substantially flat condition for the operation of the cutting means, and means arranged to guide the tire and hold it in operative relation to the device.

4. In a machine for cutting a slice from a surface of a tubular piece of work, cutting means movable transversely of a tire to cut off the tread portion, a device having diverging surfaces to open a tubular tire and spread it out in a substantially flat condition for the operation of the cutting means, and a member arranged to guide the tire into operative relation to the device and to co-operate therewith in the opening and spreading o erations.

5. In a cutting machine, cutting means, means for supporting a tire in a vertical plane, a device for opening the tire and spreading it out before it reaches the cutting means, and a rotary anti-fr ction member for co-operatien with-the device in the tire opening and spreading operations.

In a machine for cutting a slice from a surface of a tubular piece of work, cutting means movable transversely of a tire to cut oil the tread'portion, means for feeding a tubular tire in flatt ned condition for the operation of the cutting means, and means for flatte' the ti e to facilitate its meat the cutting means, a gage for determining the thickness of a split from the tire, a support forthe gage adjustable to adjust the gage to vary the thickness of the split, means for flattening a tire to facilitate its engagement by the feed rolls, and connections between the flattening means and said support whereby the flattening means is adjusted for different sized tires simultaneously with the adjustable gage.

21. In a machine for operating on tires, cutting means, means for feeding a tire to the cutting means, means for adjusting the feeding means to accommodate differentsized t-ires, m ans for flattening the tire prior to its engagement by the feeding means, and connections between the adjusting means and the flattening means by which the latter is adjusted simultaneously with the adjustment of the feeding means.

22,. In a machine having a cutting means for slicing tread portions from tires, a device having diverging surfaces to open a tire and spread it out throughout 1ts width, and a rotary member arranged to guide the tire int-o operative relation to the device and to co-operate therewith in the opening and spreading operations. I

23. An attachment for a machine having a cutter for slicing tread portions from tires, comprising a horn for supporting a tire in a vertical plane, a device for opening a tire and spreading itout before it reaches the field of operation of the cutter, and a rotary member for co-operation with the device in the tire opening and spreading operations.

2 f. Ina machine for operating on tires, cutting means, feed rolls for engaging a tire to feed it to the cutting means, and a table over which the tire is passed to the feed rolls, ,aid table having a recessed portion adapted to facilitate the introduction of the tire into the grip of the feed rolls.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

nanam A. BALLARD. 

